{"id":3515,"date":"2014-02-21T17:48:32","date_gmt":"2014-02-21T17:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.artinfo.com\/blunotes\/?p=3515"},"modified":"2014-02-21T17:48:32","modified_gmt":"2014-02-21T17:48:32","slug":"sport-of-jazz-jazz-of-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/2014\/02\/21\/sport-of-jazz-jazz-of-sport\/","title":{"rendered":"Sport of Jazz, Jazz of Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (left) likened his role on the basketball court to bassist Christian McBride's (right) on the bandstand. Photos: Courtesy Lakers.topbuzz.com\/ Courtesy Christian McBride Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nBassist Christian McBride<\/strong> has been scoring big lately.
\nLast year, he released two acclaimed CDs\u2014\u201cPeople Music<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0from his Inside Straight septet, and \u201cOut Here<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0which introduced a sharply refined trio with pianist Christian Sands<\/strong> and drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr<\/strong>. (both on Mack Avenue Jazz). In 2013, he also assumed a post as jazz advisor for The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC)<\/strong>, where he serves as artistic director for the annual TD James Moody Democracy of Jazz Festival.
\nStill, McBride\u2019s got to feel a bit like a loser.
\nHis beloved 76ers, the basketball team from his hometown, Philadelphia, are a mess, posting the second-worst record in the NBA.
\nThat’s got to hurt for McBride, who is a true sports guy\u2014enough so to contribute to the popular sports website The Bleacher Report<\/strong>. (Here\u2019s a piece he <\/a>wrote\u00a0about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.)
\nSo it makes perfect sense that on Sunday, March 2, at NJPAC\u2019s Victoria Theater, McBride will host \u201cJazz Meets Sports<\/strong><\/a>.\u201d
\nMcBride will perform with his trio, and be joined by guitarist Bernie Williams<\/strong>, who is best known for his 16-year tenure as centerfielder for The New York Yankees. Williams, who grew up in Puerto Rico, was nominated for a Latin Jazz Grammy Award, and is co-author of the book Rhythms of the Game: The Link Between Music and Athletic Performance<\/a><\/em>.
\nSunday\u2019s program also features a conversation about jazz and sports, moderated by McBride and CBS sportscaster Lesley Visser <\/strong>(the only woman enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame). For that, they’ll be joined by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar<\/strong>, who is best known for his work from 1969-89, a span during which he scored more points than any other professional basketball player ever has, played on six championship teams, and was named an All-Star 19 times. As an author and filmmaker<\/a>, Jabbar has placed both basketball and jazz in important historical and cultural perspective.
\nAs I wrote in this 2006 Wall Street Journal Cultural Conversation with Jabbar<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Mr. Abdul-Jabbar’s fondness for jazz is no secret. He was born in Harlem, the son of a Juilliard-trained trombonist and singer who rubbed elbows and made music with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie at nightspots including the legendary Minton’s Playhouse. In 1987, he made a short-lived attempt to start his own jazz record label, Cranberry Records, with Gillespie on its planned roster. In 2004, he penned affectionate liner notes for “Monk ‘Round the World,” a recording of pianist Thelonious Monk’s music. Later that year, he was among the faithful who filled Manhattan’s Riverside Church to mourn the death of drummer Elvin Jones.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here\u2019s how McBride described his inspiration for this event in a press release:<\/p>\n

“I wanted to find a way to combine my two passions in life. A lot of people aren’t quite sure how the two relate, but the fact is when you have a group coming together trying to make something happen, it’s all about teamwork. It’s all about trusting one another. It’s all about telepathy. In that sense, sports and music are the exact same thing. Obviously, music doesn’t rely on points to decide a victor, but the process is very much the same.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The NBA just held its annual all-star game in New Orleans. The last time the event was held in that city, I happened to be on assignment there. I penned this piece for the Times-Picayune<\/a>, which ended this way, suggesting that Jabbar and McBride share a special bond.<\/p>\n

And maybe that classic NBA mid-’80s five, Abdul-Jabbar’s Los Angeles Lakers, can be thought of as a jazz quintet. If so, how would Abdul-Jabbar cast himself in that band?
\n“I’d be the bassist,” he said, “who soloed a lot.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I moderated a similar discussion with McBride and Jabbar in 2006 hosted by the National Jazz Museum in Harlem<\/strong>.
\nOn Sunday, with Williams in tow, I wonder if the conversation will veer at all toward which sport is most \u201cjazz-like.\u201d In making my case here that it\u2019s jazz, hands down, I\u2019ll pull out from my archives a piece I did for Jazziz a decade ago, pasted below since it has no digital home. (Should you wish to make the case for say, baseball or golf or figure skating, I welcome your comments.)
\nJAZZIZ Magazine\/ October 2005
\nOn Bebop and B-ball <\/strong>
\nBy Larry Blumenfeld
\nBasketball can never be fully mastered, but you\u2019re likely to find more open shots if you can make the game swing.
\nA few years ago, ABC Sports announced new production techniques for its televised basketball coverage. \u201cNBA games are getting new camera angles, sights, and sounds, all inspired by jazz music,\u201d boasted a press release, which went on to describe new visual sensations \u2014a floating overhead camera system and a lens embedded in the playing surface \u2014 as well as animation and graphics designed to \u201crecall the feel of vintage Blue Note Records album covers.\u201d
\nABC\u2019s strategy shouldn\u2019t surprise anyone. Jazz and basketball share a great deal: In many ways they mirror each other. And it\u2019s no wonder that many jazz musicians have a love for basketball and that many basketball players are jazz fans.
\nLegendary NBA center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a serious jazz enthusiast whose father played trombone, once pointed out to me that during the Harlem Renaissance jazz and basketball actually shared a stage. In the 1920s, The New York Renaissance, a barnstorming black basketball team best known as \u201cThe Harlem Rens,\u201d played their home games at the Renaissance Casino and Ballroom on 138th Street. \u201cThere\u2019d be jazz mixed in with the basketball game,\u201d Jabbar says. \u201cThere\u2019d be the first half of the game and then a warm-up band and then the second half of the game and then, say, Fletcher Henderson or Count Basie until three or four in the morning.\u201d
\nWynton Marsalis, who is nearly as proud of his jump shot as of his trumpet tone, thinks \u201cjazz and basketball are both important expressions of American themes of individuality, teamwork, and innovation.\u201d
\nThe late saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. composed one of his most memorable tunes, \u201cLet It Flow,\u201d as a dedication to his friend, Julius \u2018Dr. J\u201d Erving, one of the greatest improvisers to step on a basketball court. \u201cGrover actually presented it to me as a demo tape,\u201d Erving recalls. \u201cHis words were: \u2018I watched the game last night, and there were things that were happening over and over. There was a real flow to it all, so I wrote it in music.\u2019 Certain sections of the tune come at you in waves. When I hear it, I can visualize a highlight film of me driving to the hoop and elevating and \u2014 boom! \u2014 a dunk here, a finger roll there, a bank shot here, a pass there.\u201d
\nThe connections between basketball and jazz are not accidental. They\u2019re built into the basics of both endeavors.
\nForm and improvisation
\nBasketball, like jazz, is a perfect marriage of form and improvisation. For a basketball team to function properly, the players must master a set of structural elements and internalize them. But, as with jazz musicians, they must be equally able and willing to improvise. They must respond to changes in the moment and create on the spot, always in ways that serve the larger group\u2019s purpose. Basketball coaches draw up elaborate schemes, plays, and contingencies. Jazz musicians compose tunes based on all sorts of structural elements. And these are studied, practiced, and learned. But in both jazz and basketball, what\u2019s written on the page or blackboard is mere preparation for reality: Once the playbook or the score is subjected to the vicissitudes of real-time interaction, the true work takes shape.
\nRhythm matters
\nJoel Dorn \u2014 whose producing credits included Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Max Roach \u2014was as serious about analyzing hoops as he is about shaping jazz records. He once thought of having percussionist Ralph MacDonald record a rhythm track for an album consisting solely of dribbling a basketball. That never happened, but it sounds like a good idea. The dribbling of a basketball, the squeak of sneakers against hardwood \u2014 these form the basic rhythm track of a basketball game. A sense of rhythm and flow are essential. There\u2019s a reason why players take a few dribbles before attempting a foul shot: the rhythm of the game has been interrupted, and it must be restored.
\nBoth jazz and basketball are polyrhythmic and flexible in that there may be more than one pulse working at any given time and because the tempo may be sped up or slowed down. Controlling the tempo is the goal of both a swinging jazz group and a successful basketball team. Critic Nelson George once described Earl Monroe, a stylish guard who played for the New York Knicks in the 1970s, as \u201cemploying tempo changes only Thelonious Monk would understand.\u201d
\nCoded languages, unspoken cues
\nGreat basketball teams and great jazz groups share an ability to communicate wordlessly, instantly, and on a deep level. The bridge a pianist crafts on the spot to ease a saxophonist into his solo is like the no-look pass a guard makes to a cutting forward. The subtle reaction of a drummer to a trumpeter\u2019s improvisation is like the perfect positioning of a center for a rebound and put-back. These players learn how to run with each other and how to let one another know precisely what they need \u2014 and how to anticipate those needs. When we marvel at the truly great basketball teams, it\u2019s not simply the score that we appreciate. When we admire a superior jazz group, it\u2019s not only the sound that captivates. It\u2019s the particular brand of cohesion that’s important, a shared sense of purpose based on common understanding that emerges in split-second decisions.
\nPersonal style changes everything
\nSince improvisational skills are so highly prized in both jazz and basketball, it\u2019s no wonder that both endeavors produce iconic players who not only excel but who change the nature of the game. And they do so not just by being faster or stronger or more technically skilled but through their particular style and interpretative gifts. Jazz and basketball are built to develop such talents and the their forms are flexible enough to change once such an innovator arrives. Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane sounded nothing like their predecessors. Yet they asserted their individuality in ways that elevated everyone in their groups, and that changed the way all future players thought and performed.
\n\u201cThe same way you can trace an evolution from Coleman Hawkins to Bird to Sonny Rollins to \u2019Trane,\u201d Dorn once told me, \u201cyou can go from Elgin Baylor to Earl Monroe to Magic and Michael. You know, a musician will say, \u2018Yeah, I play tenor,\u2019 or an athlete will say, \u2018Yeah, I play point guard, but let me show you how I do it.\u2019 And then, nothing is the same again.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s a black thing
\nBoth basketball and jazz have something to teach us about the impact of African-American culture on American life. In a 1970 article in Time, titled \u201cWhat America Would Be Like Without Blacks,\u201d Ralph Ellison characterized the \u201cNegro\u201d contributions to American culture as \u201cjazz shaped,\u201d which \u201cserve to remind us that the world is ever unexplored, and that while a complete mastery of life is mere illusion, the real secret of the game is to make life swing.\u201d Ellison\u2019s thesis extends to the basketball court: The sport can never be fully mastered, but you\u2019re likely to find more open shots if you can make the game swing. As Marsalis notes, \u201cJazz and basketball are great examples of Afro-American variations put on American themes. And those variations are so influential that they alter the direction of those themes.\u201d
\nAs with jazz, the NBA\u2019s great dominators and innovators during the last 50 years have, for the most part, been African Americans who have meshed physical ability and intellectual prowess with audacious and unprecedented displays of style. While white players and pioneers have contributed significantly to the history of both jazz and basketball, the story lines of both endeavors are predominantly expressions of Black America.
\nFive-on-five
\nThe most obvious correlation to draw between jazz and basketball is to liken the five-man b-ball squad to a working jazz quintet. Are the \u201985 Lakers with Kareem and Magic and James Worthy like Miles Davis\u2019 1965 quintet with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, and Ron Carter? It\u2019s an interesting question, both fun and instructive to consider.
\nSo how do the positions \u2014 the point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward, and center on a basketball team, and the trumpet, sax, piano, bass, and drums of a classic quintet \u2014 correspond?
\nFor Marsalis, \u201cThe point guard has to be a horn player, if he\u2019s the leader of the band. He controls the music and what the sound of the band will be. He controls the pace. The center, the big man, is like a drummer. The power forward would be a bass player. The shooting guard would be the trumpet or saxophonist who is a soloist. Your small forward, your slasher or wild card, is like a piano player.\u201d
\nFor Dorn, \u201cThe point guard and the center are the trumpet and tenor. The other three guys, the shooting guard and forwards, they\u2019re the rhythm section.\u201d
\nWhat about those \u201985 Lakers? If the team were a jazz quintet, how would Kareem cast himself?
\n\u201cI would have been the bass player,\u201d he said, \u201cwho soloed a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bassist Christian McBride has been scoring big lately. Last year, he released two acclaimed CDs\u2014\u201cPeople Music,\u201d\u00a0from his Inside Straight septet, and \u201cOut Here,\u201d\u00a0which introduced a sharply refined trio with pianist Christian Sands and drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr. (both on Mack Avenue Jazz). In 2013, he also assumed a post as jazz advisor for The New … <\/p>\n

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